


Photos Hold A Thousand Memories

by celestialswrites



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: 5 years after the end of tlou, Angst, F/M, Gen, death :(, sad ellie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 08:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18567622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialswrites/pseuds/celestialswrites
Summary: Ellie is scrambling to get the last memories of Joel as the community is falling apart.





	Photos Hold A Thousand Memories

**Author's Note:**

> idea inspired by @joelsmilIer on twitter!

Fire. Smoke. It clogged her lungs. Even the coughs couldn’t fix it. Everything was blurred, her vision dizzy and her knees weak. 

Joel’s body kept popping back into her mind. 

Not now. Not when a man with a gun stood in the hallway in front of her. 

Ducking behind cover, Ellie just missed his shot. Gun. Enemy. She had to shoot him. 

Ellie grabbed whatever was on her back and pulled the trigger. It was a shotgun, its kick knocking her back. It hit the man, enough to make him fall. 

Wiping the tears from her eyes only made the blood and dirt get rubbed inside. 

“Ellie!”

Her name was being called, but she could barely hear them. The man on the floor resembled Joel. Her Joel. The Joel that she had just left to escape. The Joel that she didn’t even get to say goodbye to. 

The Joel that saved her life and made her the 19 year old she was today. 

Someone stood in front of her. Dina. Her dark haired girlfriend that shook her shoulders. She looked at her, but could only see through her. 

“We have to go, now!”

Ellie began to remember the situation. Fire. Smoke. The place was on fire, and everyone had to leave. 

Even if it meant leaving the people they loved behind. 

Ellie shook her head, then morphing it into a nod. “Leave...we have to leave...we-“

An idea popped into mind. She had only one chance to save Joel in her memory. 

Dina began running ahead, but Ellie made a run for it down the opposite hall. Her room was somewhere down the long corridors, but the place was a maze. Left, right—no, keep going. She barely knew which way was up. 

A heap of wood from the roof fell in front of her, fire burning bright in her view. But was that way to her room? Ellie stumbled back, holding her hand out to shield her face from the dancing flames.

Looking down the hall to her left, she could see it. Her door was just there, with a few stickers and a whiteboard reading “Ellie’s Room”. 

Something tugged her back. No, she needed to go to her room. Ellie pushed against the arm around her waist, screaming at the top of her lungs. 

No. No. Please. She couldn’t tell what she was thinking and what came out of her mouth. 

Falling to the ground, Ellie desperately crawled to the door, but a voice calmed her, telling her they had to leave. There was no choice. 

Ellie squeezed her eyes shut, pushing the still eyes on Joel’s face staring up at the ceiling out of her mind.

She pictured him smiling. She pictured the way his eyes lit up when he played the guitar. She pictured the way he looked at her that winter when he cupped her crying face, promising her he’s never let her out of his sight ever again.

Sadly it was a promise he couldn’t keep.

The building became smaller in smaller as Dina continued to pull her away from the destruction. The photos that were pinned to her wall in her room began to catch fire, burning bright red from the sides and charring black in the corners. 

They were photos of smiles and memories and moment of Joel and Ellie and her life in Tommy’s community. The polaroid camera that was Joel’s Christmas present to her sat on her desk, becoming engulfed by the bright fire. 

Now with no photo in hand, Ellie kept running, holding onto Dina for support as she kept her eyes shut. The only photos she had were the ones in her memory, which could never be replaced or lost.


End file.
